This year’s theme is food and students are “encouraged to write poems exploring the ways in which food, culture and history intersect, finding connections between what we eat and who we are, and how culture and identities are formed through food.”

The Sejong Cultural Society, in in collaboration with the Korea Institute at Harvard University, provide lesson plans, videos and teaching guides if you’re not familiar with sijo. You can learn about sijo and how to teach it here.

Deadline: 11:59pm on February 28th, 2017 (CST). Students submit sijoshere.

Top prize is $500; second place is $400; third place is $300; and honorable mentions receive a Friends of Pacific Rim Award ($50 each).

This year, students are asked to write (in 350 words or less) about what Memorial Day means.

Deadline: December 1, 2016.

“The grand national winner will receive $5,000, with additional prizes for the top three essays in each grade category ($2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place, and $1,000 for third place). Additional prizes may be awarded to students winning at local and regional levels of competition.”